Long-term underground exploitation of Zn-Pb ores has led to drainage of the area and formation of a huge dumping ground in the form of a pile. In its vicinity, processes of acid drainage have ...developed as a result of contamination of soils and groundwater. Geochemical transformations of mineral contents of waste can significantly affect physical and chemical properties of the soils and the bedrock. At the prospect of termination of the mining activity in the near future, determining the routes of the pollution migration, ability to monitor acid drainage processes and assessment of the risk of heavy metal pollution are really crucial. The paper presents a proposal for solving this problem by means of geophysical methods: Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), Time Domain-Induced Polarisation (TDIP), Frequency Domain Electromagnetics (FDEM) and shallow-depth magnetometric surveys combined with geochemical investigations. The obtained results of geophysical surveys have been confirmed by geochemical investigations. The applied ERT and TDIP methods make it possible to identify the spread of the zones of pollution around the tailing pile, but their effectiveness depends on humidity of the ground. Soil magnetometry and shallow-depth induction profiling are a good tool to identify the medium contaminated with minerals redeposited by aeolian processes and allow to determine the range of the dust spread from the pile. It has been shown that the range of impact of the geochemical changes around the tailing pile is high and depends not only on directions and dynamics of water flow from the pile but also on aeolian transport.
•Bulk magnetic susceptibility is related to concentration of technogenic and natural magnetic particles.•Anthropogenic physical and chemical disturbances of forest topsoil can be detected by magnetic ...methods.•Magnetic susceptibility can be a reliable environmental indicator to measure the level of anthropogenic pressure.•Soil magnetometry is a tool for precise localization of polluted areas.
Forest topsoil is subjected to physical and chemical degradation due to the deposition of urban and industrial dust and landfill, as well as physical disturbances including a relic of former cultivation, clearcutting, and afforestation. Such disturbances are observed in all natural and semi-natural forests across Europe, but most intensively in urban forests surrounding cities and industrial areas. Magnetic susceptibility constitutes a convenient physical parameter that is used for both, determination of levels of industrial and urban dust deposition alongside relevant potentially toxic elements (PTEs), and for the precise localization of polluted areas (so-called “hot spots”). Deposited on the soil surface, technogenic magnetic particles (TMPs) contained in different kinds of anthropogenic dusts increase the magnetic susceptibility of polluted topsoil. This effect can easily be measured “in situ” by applying a geophysical (geomagnetic) technique – soil magnetometry – for which magnetic susceptibility is the basic parameter. This technique can be performed inexpensively and rapidly with high spatial resolution at local (e.g., for individual trees, and forest stand areas around pollution sources) and regional (for whole regions or countries) scales. The application of combined magnetic-chemical analyses together with geostatistical methods (especially cokriging methods) can deliver more significant results regarding the spatial distribution of pollution than chemical testing alone. A high degree of correlation between magnetic susceptibility and PTEs content (expressed in the form of Pollution Load Index) significantly improves the level of precision in localizing polluted areas. Knowledge of forest topsoil quality and the use of magnetic susceptibility for the precise delineation of areas with considerable anthropogenic physical and chemical disturbances may facilitate the management application of the ecosystem service concept at local and regional scales.
The study in the area surrounding the Rybnik urban agglomeration (southern Poland) was conducted to determine the influence of various emission sources on the occurrence of local magnetic anomalies ...observed in the forest topsoils. For this reason field measurement of volume-specific magnetic susceptibility (κ) was conducted in forest topsoil on the area of study. The measurements were performed twice: directly on the surface and after removal of forest litter to see the influence of the litter on the magnetic signal measured on the soil surface. The maps of surface distribution of κ value revealed that magnetic anomalies were observed 2.0km around the residential areas dominated by low emission sources, 2.1km around the coke plant, 2.8km around the old steelworks, 1.4km around the coal-mining waste heaps, and 4.0km around the combined heat and power plant and coal mines. On the 43% of the study area, the topsoil magnetic susceptibility was between 50 and 100×10−5 SI units; on the 5.2% of the area, κ value was between 100 and 200×10−5 SI units; and on the 1.2% of the research area, the κ value was over 200×10−5 SI units. Also the vertical distribution of technogenic magnetic particles (TMPs) along the topsoil profile was analysed using topsoil 30cm cores. Two κ value maxima were observed in the soil profile. The upper one (κaverage=333.9×10−5 SI units) was found in either the Oa or Ah subhorizons at the depth of 3cm to 8cm dependently of thickness of organic horizon. The lower one (κaverage=53.4×10−5 SI units) was observed in the B or C horizon at the depth of 19cm to 23cm. The upper maxima was of anthropogenic origin with large content of the magnetic fraction (magnetic spherules), whereas the lower maxima containing isometric crystals of iron oxides was of pedogenic or geogenic origin. The soil magnetometry seems to be a useful tool in identification of anthropogenic “hot spots” caused by industrial and urban dust deposition from different emission sources.
•The shape and range of “magnetic hotspots” are determined by kind of emission sources and local wind conditions.•The depth of TMPs accumulation was determined by organic horizon thickness.•Technogenic ferrospheres and cenospheres mainly occurred in the O and Ah horizons.
Industrial and urban dusts were characterized by investigating their magnetic properties. Topsoil composed of technogenic magnetic particles (TMP) originating from areas affected by three ironworks, ...street dust mainly composed of traffic-related pollution, and particulate matter (PM) from urban agglomeration in Warsaw, Poland were investigated. Several magnetic methods, namely magnetic susceptibility, thermomagnetic curves, hysteresis loops, decomposition of isothermal remanent magnetization acquisition curves, and first-order reversal curves, were performed to evaluate the magnetic fraction of dust. Magnetite was the main magnetic phase in all types of samples, with a small amount of high-coercive hematite within ironworks and street dust samples. Significant differences were observed in the domain structure (grain size) of industrial and traffic-related magnetic particles. The grain size of TMP obtained from steel production was in the range of 5–20 µm and was predominated by a mixture of single-domain (SD) and multidomain (MD) grains, with the prevalence of SD grains in the topsoil affected by Třinec ironwork. The traffic-related dust contained finer grains with a size of about 0.1 µm, which is characteristic of the pseudo-single-domain (PSD)/SD threshold. Street dusts were composed of a slightly higher proportion of MD grains, while PM also revealed the typical behavior of superparamagnetic particles.
Studies on the effects of dust deposition on soils in urban-industrial areas were conducted with application of magnetic (soil magnetometry, thermomagnetic analysis) and geochemical (elements ...content) methods. The study area covers three different forest sites on Upper Silesian Conurbation. The purpose of the research was an estimation of soil pollution and characteristic of air derived particles. Results show magnetite and maghemite as dominant magnetic components of analyzed soil samples. The highest volume magnetic susceptibility (κ) and no correlation with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) were stated close to metallurgical plant whilst the highest correlation coefficient between κ and PTEs was stated in samples from the urban area and in a vicinity of coking plant.
The organic top horizons of forest soils in the vicinity of industrial centers in Upper Silesia, Poland, are characterized by remarkably high magnetic susceptibility. The unusually strong soil ...susceptibility does not result from weathering or pedogenesis or from deposition of natural detrital ferrimagnetic minerals but is due rather to the influx of anthropogenic magnetic particles contained in industrial dusts and fly ashes. The magnetic particles are iron oxide spherules which originate during the combustion of fossil fuels (brown and hard coals) and during iron or steel production. Heavy metals, such as zinc, lead, or cadmium which stem from the same pollution sources, are often associated with the magnetic and other dust particles and cause soil contamination, which is potentially hazardous for plants, animals, and humans. Because the regional magnetic susceptibility distribution pattern is closely correlated to measured dust fall and largely parallels the distribution of heavy metals, measurements of magnetic susceptibility, which can be conducted easily both in the laboratory and in the field, can be used as a fast and sensitive tool to trace and monitor soil contamination in industrialized regions.
Magnetic susceptibility is used worldwide as a measure of concentration of (ferri)magnetic minerals in soil, sediment and dust. In soils, these minerals are of various origins: air-derived ...particulate pollution, parent rocks or pedogenesis. Human activity causes different changes in the content of magnetic minerals as well as their spatial and vertical distribution in soil profiles. Magnetic minerals are characterised by an affinity to other elements occurring in the soil, e.g. heavy metals. Therefore magnetic susceptibility has been widely applied as approximation of soil contamination by heavy metals.
The archival soil samples collected from different soil horizons in the territory of the Free State of Saxony (Germany) were subjected to magnetic susceptibility measurements using Bartington MS2B. Additionally, samples were chemically analysed in order to determine the content of Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and As using a method of atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The contamination factor (CF) and geoaccumulation index (Igeo) were applied for assessment of soil contamination with particular potentially toxic elements (PTE), while the more general pollution load index (PLI) was used for comparison between different geographic sites.
Values of magnetic susceptibility varied from 16.6 to 1382×10−8m3kg−1 in organic soil horizons and from 0.1 to 1580×10−8m3kg−1 in deeper layers. Significant and relatively high correlation coefficients between soil magnetic susceptibility and the content of some heavy metals indicated that they were of the similar origin as (ferri)magnetic minerals occurring in soil (viz. industrial pollution, parent rocks or pedogenic processes). PLI distribution over the entire area of Saxony corresponds well with the magnetic susceptibility distribution, especially in the organic soil horizon. The indices qualify the northeastern part of Saxony as extremely or heavily polluted in the organic soil horizon (under forests) with decreasing contamination in deeper layers, being classified as non-polluted to moderately polluted. However, the prevailing Saxony area is characterised by low and moderate contamination by potentially toxic elements, such as heavy metals.
•Effect of the study is the first map of soil magnetic susceptibility of Saxony.•Soil of Saxony is diversified in respect of magnetic susceptibility and PTE content.•Magnetic susceptibility increases in urban areas and those, adjacent to power plants.•Enhanced magnetic susceptibility in south Saxony has geogenic origin caused by bedrock.•Magnetic susceptibility distribution corresponds with PLI distribution of Saxon soil.
Application of integrated magnetic, geochemical and mineralogical methods for qualitative and quantitative assessment of forest topsoils exposed to the industrial emissions was the objective of this ...manuscript. Volume magnetic susceptibility (κ) in three areas of southern Poland close to the coke and metallurgical plants was measured directly in the field. Representative topsoil samples were collected for further chemical and mineralogical analyses. Topsoil magnetic susceptibility in the studied areas depended mainly on the content of technogenic magnetic particles (TMPs) and decreased downwind at increasing distance from the emitters. In the vicinity of coking plants a high amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was observed, especially the most carcinogenic ones with four- and five-member rings. No significant concentration of TMPs (estimated on the base of κ values) and heavy metals (HM) was observed in area where the coke plant was the only pollution source. In areas with both coke and metallurgical industry, higher amounts of TMPs, PAHs and HM were detected. Morphological and mineralogical analyses of TMPs separated from contaminated soil samples revealed their high heterogeneity in respect of morphology, grain size, mineral and chemical constitution. Pollution load index and toxicity equivalent concentration of PAHs used for soil quality assessment indicated its high level of pollution.
PDF
